In Virginia and throughout the United States, interest in fish farming for profit or as a hobby has increased in the past few years. Encouraged by the success of trout farmers in western states and catfish farmers in southern states, prospective fish farmers question if similar opportunities exist in Virginia's fresh waters.

Nearly 300 species of mussels inhabit freshwater rivers, streams, and lakes in the United States. This is the richest diversity of mussels found in the world and an extraordinary natural heritage that needs protection.

two streams are alike,
but many share certain problems
and characteristics. For example,
all streams are products of the
land they drain, and their waters
reflect streamside land management
practices, good and poor.
Much can be done to protect
clean streams and restore damaged
ones. Since most streams
originate on private lands, their
fate depends largely on wise
management by streamside landowners.
This publication provides
general information and
management guidelines to help
stream property owners and
their neighbors protect, improve,
and restore these valuable running
waters.

At times landowners may be confronted with serious water losses resulting from the sudden collapse or gradual deterioration of earthen pond dams, irrigation canals, and drainage ditches. Although the loss of water from small earthen impoundments is frequently due to faulty construction, it may also be the result of undetected biological forces.

“Liming,” as the word suggests, is the addition of limestone (calcite), primarily calcium carbonate (CaCO3), to neutralize acid waters and soils and buffer them from rapid fluctuations in pH. Limestone typically is applied to lawns, gardens, pastures, and
croplands to supply calcium, an essential plant nutrient,
and to decrease soil acidity.

Aquatic biodiversity is the rich and wonderful
variety of plants and animals—from crayfish
to catfish, from mussels to mayflies, from
tadpoles to trout—that live in watery habitats. It is
the number of different native species, or species
richness.

When a species goes extinct, all the genetic
information carried by individuals of that
species is lost forever, never to be reproduced
again. Extinction is a terrible waste of life and
a loss of potential solutions to future problems such
as possible cures to disease and solutions for survival
in a changing world.

Nearly 300 species of mussels inhabit freshwater
rivers, streams, and lakes in the United
States. This is the richest diversity of mussels
found in the world and an extraordinary natural heritage
that needs protection. Because of the lustrous,
pearl-like interior of the shells,

Nearly 800 native fish species in 36 families
inhabit the freshwater rivers, streams, and
lakes of the United States and Canada. North
America has the most diverse temperate freshwater
fish fauna in the world.

Fee-fishing, or pay-fishing as the name implies, is buying
the right to fish in a private pond, lake, or stream.
These are excellent places to practice your fishing skills
and teach children the fine art of fishing.

The zebra mussel, a small freshwater shellfish native to
Europe, is one of the newest invaders of U.S. waters.
They are D-shaped in outline and average one-half inch
in length-the size of your fingernail-but can grow to two
inches during their five year lifespan.